Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Meta, Best Buy, AppLovin, Scotts Miracle-Gro and more
Check out the companies making the biggest moves in midday trading: Meta Platforms — The social media giant tumbled more than 6%. Meta lost two major legal cases concerning child safety this week. While the financial penalties aren’t large relative to the company’s size, Meta’s losses in court raise questions around Big Tech’s role in social media safety and free speech protections on these platforms. AppLovin – The app marketing company saw shares drop almost 8%. Shares fell on a report that weakening e-commerce spending trends are hurting AppLovin and that the company hasn’t seen sufficient new client momentum to offset churn in the first quarter. Separately, Piper Sandler said in a Wednesday report that it believes the company continues to “out-execute peers and all signs point toward strong E-Com adoption.” Brown-Forman — Shares of the Jack Daniels owner rose more than 14% after Bloomberg reported that French spirits company Pernod Ricard is considering a bid for Brown-Forman. Scotts Miracle-Gro — Shares fell more than 4% after the lawn and garden products company was downgraded to neutral from overweight at JPMorgan. The analyst said “raw material issues are likely to cause some earnings growth uncertainties.” Best Buy — The electronics retailer’s stock popped 4% without any specific news driving it. Gordon Haskett analysts told clients there has been speculation that GameStop might consider buying Best Buy. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has signaled he’d like to make an acquisition, and the company disclosed in its 10-k filing that it has set aside $700 million in collateral tied to an unspecified derivative position. Gordon Haskett said GameStop may have built exposure to a target via swaps. H.B. Fuller — The adhesives manufacturer gained 4% on fiscal first-quarter results that beat the Street. H.B. Fuller earned 57 cents per share, excluding certain items. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a profit of 55 cents per share. The company’s full-year earnings guidance also topped analyst estimates. Pony AI — Shares fell 13% after the company outline ambitious robotaxi expansion plans. The announcement came as it reported its first quarterly profit. The Chinese autonomous driving firm’s revenue fell 18% to $29 million, largely due to the timing of project-based revenue recognition. Robotaxi revenue more than doubled and management highlighted plans to scale for over 3,000 vehicles and expand globally, which could pressure margins. Worthington Steel — The steel processing company plunged 15% after posting fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of 27 cents per share, marking a decline from the 35 cents per share earned in the year-ago period. Memory stocks — Shares of memory chipmakers tumbled following the unveiling of Google’ s new AI model, which the company said could reduce the amount of memory required to run large language models. Sandisk dropped 7%, Micron Technology , Western Digital and Seagate Technology each fell more than 4%. Navan — The travel tech firm soared 27% after guiding for strong revenue for 2027. Navan expects full-year revenue of between $866 million and $874 million, versus the FactSet consensus estimate of $840.8 million. The company’s fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share and revenue also topped Wall Street’s expectations. MillerKnoll — The furniture company plummeted almost 23% after posting fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of 43 cents on revenue of $926.6 million. That reflected a year-over-year decline of 2% for adjusted earnings and an increase of 6% for revenue. MillerKnoll warned of a roughly $8 million to $9 million impact in the fourth quarter tied to the Middle East conflict, stemming from minimal expected shipments to that part of the world as well as higher logistics costs. Snap — The stock slipped almost 9% after the European Union said it was investigating Snapchat for allegedly not doing enough to prevent child grooming and the sale of illegal goods. — CNBC’s Fred Imbert, Darla Mercado, Sarah Min, Nick Wells, and Lisa Han contributed reporting.
